West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1887-09-30

civil law instead oil relying on sell
control. Verify, prohibition offers
a food on which men will not grow
to the stature of moral manhood.
Put the law on the books, make it
successful and then, although bcne-
fits may accrue for season, as re
CARDS the quiet of society, yet the
world will have taken step back
ward in true moral progress. and
christian manhood will have receded
from it's divine ideal.
Again. For the church to accept
prohibition as necessary to subdue
this moral evil. is confession of
failure and Of hopeless weakness on
the part of christianity. 1t is a
confession that christian methods
are too weak: that the Gospel is
unequal to saving men from the sin
Of intemperance: that however eff
cient as regards other forms of sin.
yet the church must be supplement-
ed by legal compulsion as regards
drunkenness, and as respects this
particular sin the preacher must be
attended by constable. There is
no evasion of this conclusion. 1t is
SO plain rs TO he self-evident. In
stead of relying on Gods spirit, the
preacher advocating prohibition
puts his trust in fallible Legislators.
Instead of using spiritual influence,
he resorts to the tricks Of politi
clans. What the church needs for
the successful doing of her work in
saving men from the sin of drunken
ness, as from all other sins, is not a
prohibitory statute, but soulful
ing Grace. To day, were the church
thoroughly to arouse herself to ex-
ert all the spiritual energies which
lie dormant within her, the world
would be shaken as by an earth
quake, and the sin of drunkenness
and other sins would be more zeal
ously summed All history and all
the analogies of faith teach that NOR
al reformation is both inward and
gradual, and most emphatically, that
it cannot be FASTENED by statute
law. Now the theory of prohibition
grows impatient Of this law of NOR
al progress. Alarmed, Mortified by
the portentous character of the spe-
cial folm Of evil which it seeks to
combat, it proposes to destroy this
particular sin ut one blow, fondly
and foolisbly dreaming that such a
blow is possible. 1t may be proper
enough to cut a Gordian knot. when
the knot is only . tangled mass of
cords or thongs. But when it is
made Of thought and feeling, or i'm
pacted by immoral passion, there is
no sword Of human law that, to the
satisfaction of morals or religion, is
equal to the cutting. Such instru-
ment may, indeed, if circumstances
shall prove propitious, resolve rid
die for society, and minister to it's
general comfort and safety. But
when you get to the real moral prob
lem which in this question faces the
Church and the moralist, you find
something far more imperative and
important than any external and So
cial prosperity demand for moral
reformation. That knot must be un-
tied, by patient toll and love and
faith and prayer Prohibition is no
answer to this moral problem, and
1t is mistake to assume that it is
a panacea. If it is not meant rs q
moral remedy it has no more pro-
priety in the pulpit than n discus
sion of the tariff.
A notable illustration of the point
in hand is found in the fact that the
tide of so-called temperance effort of
the present day sets so prevailingly
toward prohibition. The vast ma
jority of temperance speeches and
acknowledgement that christian
temperance is self-control, and that
for sobriety the moral law of absti-
nence is found in individual liberty
insist on the necessity of an en-
forced abstinence, not simply as a
social expedient, but as moral re-
quirement. Moral suasion is derided
and laid aside. Moral and spiritual
forces are considered of no value.